"If you start yakking about polka-dots, it’s over"

ANY STORY about a sister goes far, far back. Back to the time when you’re both just preliminary sketches of the people you’ll become,says Aida Austin.

And up here on the plane, I’m thinking about my sister in London, waiting for me down in Arrivals.

I’m thinking about those preliminary sketches: my sister as a nervy 10-year-old and me at 15, taking her home from school every day on the London Underground and how desperate she was to get home to Mum and the safety of the known.